WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said on Thursday that a hand audit of ballots in the state was complete and had confirmed Joe Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 election in the state.
An audit was launched after unofficial results showed Biden leading President Donald Trump by about 14,000 votes.
“The audit confirmed that the original machine count accurately portrayed the winner of the election,” the secretary of state’s office said in a statement on Thursday evening.
Raffensperger is expected to formally certify Biden’s victory on Friday.
Trump, who has claimed without evidence that there were widespread irregularities and fraud in states that he lost to Biden, including Georgia, can still request a recount in Georgia after the results are certified because the margin of victory was less than 0.5%.
Reporting by Simon Lewis; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Muralikumar Anantharaman